We don't Need No Education
by PollyPlummer23
Summary: The Cybersquad have grown apart over the years and are barely speaking to one another. Motherboard needs them again as teenagers and calls them in along with a new friend to save cyberspace using math. Meanwhile, Rachel questions everything about this new world and why Math is such a big fixture. Its like a kids education show y'all.
1. Subway

**Rachel Feldman is literally the only character that belongs to me.**

 **Sometimes as people grow older, they grow apart. Such is the case with the Cybersquad.**

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One of the biggest 'growing up' realizations Inez ever had was that by Junior High Cyberspace and Motherboard was the only thing keeping their little group together. Matt and Jackie both skyrocketed into popularity after Matt joined the track team and Jackie started helping out in the Fashion Club while Inez was...Inez. She just stayed the way she had been at age nine with a few minor changes by age 12. At some point Matt and Jackie started dating and that was a big factor in the continued deterioration of the relationship.

The second biggest 'growing up' realization at around 15 was that they had nothing in common any more by high school. Motherboard hadn't called on them for three years at that point and life had settled into a had his friends and activities (track and field, school paper) , Jackie had her friends and clubs (fashion club, yearbook committee, and a lot of other things Inez couldn't remember) and Inez had her things (Debate club, mathaletes) and her friend: Rachel.

Inez had known Rachel for years but they were never close friends until the end of Middle School after 'The Incident' with Jackie and Matt. Rachel lived in the same apartment complex as Inez, had always attended the same schools, and was only a day older than Inez. Rachel was a puzzle to Inez and everybody else because she seemed to be a massive walking contradiction: Rachel was highly logical but was horrible at most forms of math, she was kind but deeply sarcastic with a dry side to her humor, she had a good imagination but was also firmly grounded in reality, and she was a pacifist that would punch somebody's lights out if they hurt her friends.

This was kind of hysterical since Rachel was tiny. Inez had a growth spurt and was 5'3 but Rachel was 4 ft 9 inches tall. People were constantly tripping over her or knocking into her in spite of that fact she was a flaming red head and wore brightly colored patterned shirts (her favorite was a light orange gingham top and dark blue jeans.)

The point is that, because of 'The Incident' being busy with other things,and new friends, Inez did not really talk to Matt or Jackie anymore. Any time they did talk it was kind of...no REALLY awkward.

Like right now

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The setting: Matt and Jackie are coming back early from a party. Inez and Rachel are coming back from a debate at the community center across the city. The time is 11:00 pm. Nobody else is on the subway except a weird lady at the far end who keeps talking to something in her carpet bag and feeding it dried crickets.

Both parties are sitting across from each other as far away from the lady as they can get.

Inez cleared her throat "So...how have you guys been?"

Matt and Jackie looked at her as if she was speaking a foreign language.

She tried again "Its been awhile huh?"

Silence.

Inez glared at them "What, you're too good to talk to me?"

Matt took out his earbuds and mentioned for Jackie to do the same, "What was that? Sorry we thought you were talking to Rachel."

"Oh! Um...How have you guys been?"

Matt shrugged "I've been better. The team lost the last race we had but we'll be ready next time."

"I'm sure you will" Inez looked at Jackie "How are you doing?"

The African-American girl replied shortly "Fine. Thanks for asking."

"Did I do something to you?"

"I don't know Nezzie DID you?"

Inez bit back an 'don't call me nezzie'. It was not worth it and it wouldn't help the relationship with Matt or Jackie. Matt was being friendly right now but the fact was that since 'The Incident' the relationship between all three had been extremely rocky. Matt was probably being friendly because they had a long ride until their stop and would have to see each other in school the next day. It was easier to let it slide.

However Jackie did not seem to get the underlying message "What? You won't even defend yourself?"

Matt warned "Jackie..."

"No Matt! I want her to own up for what she did!"

At this point, Inez felt her temper rise "What I did?! What about what YOU did Jackie?! What about that?! You HUMILIATED me!"

"It was just a joke!"

"It. Wasn't. FUNNY!"

By this point they were both standing and holding onto the pivoted grab handles while shouting at each other. Matt interjected "Look, I'm dating Jackie now, it was THREE damn years ago can't you two just-"

They ignored him "I couldn't show my face! I had to switch schools for the final year of Junior High!"

"You didn't have to do what you did!"

"I was DEFENDING myself!"

The lady shrieked "QUIET!"

The teenagers looked over at her in shock.

The lady hissed "You are upsetting Mr. Giggles" She continued to feed the bag crickets and cooed "Are you a good boy Mr. Giggles?"

The bag CACKLED in response.

"Yes you are!" She glared at them "Be silent or I'll see if Mr. Giggles enjoys human tongues!"

The girls sat down glaring at each other while giving the woman wary glances.

After a long silence, Rachel spoke for the first time "Okay, I'm going to be the Switzerland to your America and Germany since Matt is definitely NOT a neutral unbiased party in this-"

Matt interrupted with an incredulous look on his face, "And you are?"

She ignored him "Inez, Jackie should not have hurt you BUT you should not have hurt her in return. No matter how much she really deserved it. Instead you BOTH should have hurt Matt since this is all his fault anyway."

Matt snapped "Excuse me Feldman but its NOT my fault! I never encouraged any of this, I was simply LIVING MY LIFE-"

He paused and stared at something at the far end of the subway "Is that what I think it is?"

All four of the teens looked and saw a purple disk floating in midair.

Jackie said flatly "I'm dreaming. That's what this is. There is NO way-"

The lady chirped cheerfully "There's your ride home Mr. Giggles! See I told you that it would show up again!"

She opened her bag and a cacklefruit jumped out and hopped towards the disk and through it after stopping to hiss at the teenagers.

The lady closed her eyes and dropped off to sleep.

Matt ran towards it and was pulled in "I'd rather do this then what we're doing right now! SEE YA!"

Jackie followed him "Matt!"

Inez raced after them "Guys, we have school tomorro-OH CRAP I FORGOT THIS SUCKS YOU IN!"

Rachel watched Matt and Jackie in shock but snapped out of it when Inez was sucked in "Inez?" She walked up to it and was immediately sucked in as well before the disk vanished with a 'blip' noise and all was silent except for the snoring of the lady and the noise of the subway on the rails.


	2. Welcome to Cyberspace

**Hey y'all! Thanks for the great reviews (: I really appreciate it and I hope you continue to enjoy the story!**

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Rachel did not swear. She never saw any reason for it, there were THOUSANDS of better ways for her to express herself, and she only knew two swearwords: shit and hell. However, since she was just sucked into another dimension, whatever rational part of Rachel was left decided this was as good a time as any.

As soon as Rachel hit the ground in Control Central, she jumped back up and stumbled towards Inez who was listening to Digit talk excitedly to her. Matt and Jackie both looked like they'd rather be somewhere else, especially Matt who was hurling over the guardrail . Rachel ignored them and grabbed the Hispanic girl's arm and began half talking half shrieking "Shit! Shitshitshit, INEZ WHAT THE HELL WHY, WHAT, HOW? THE HELL? WHERE ARE WE?"

A soft (but loud) feminine voice said from somewhere above Rachel "You are in Cyberspace."

Rachel looked up and saw a female robot on the giant screen. She opened her mouth in a silent scream, closed it, and let go of Inez's arm to lie on the floor in a ball while talking in an unnaturally calm voice "I'm high. That's it. Somebody slipped shrooms into my food and its just hitting me now. This is just a bad trip."

Jackie gave Rachel a half irritated, half quizzical look "A bad trip we're all having TOGETHER at the same time? Face it Feldman, THIS" Jackie swept up her arms and indicated the entire room "IS REAL! Motherboard has TORN us away from our lives AGAIN and, lucky you, YOU got DRAGGED into it too!" The older girl turned and glared at Motherboard "So, what was so important that you needed us on a school night? What problem couldn't you have solved yourself? Did Hacker build another giant plant or did he enter a skating contest, A SKATING CONTEST THAT ANYBODY COULD ENTER FOR SOME STUPID REASON, that determined the ruler of an entire site?"

Rachel partially recovered and stood on shaky legs "Wait...a skating contest? To determine a ruler?"

Motherboard looked sadly at Jackie but Inez spoke before she could "Leave her alone Jackie!"

"Leave her alone? Leave her alone?!"

Matt stepped in between them, still looking a little green, and snapped "If you girls start taking swings at each other again I swear I'll vomit on you both!"

Jackie glared at Matt "What, so you're taking her side now?"

"NO! I just don't want you guys to fight!"

Inez stated "Little late for that Matt.'

The redheaded boy rounded on her "Oh please Nezzie like YOU are innocent in all this! And besides Jackie's right! What was SO important that you needed to drag us here-"

Jackie interjected "Actually, Matt sweetie, you actually jumped in here to avoid our fight."

"And look how well that turned out!"

"SHADDUP!"

The teenagers looked at Digit in shock. Rachel blurted "He can talk? How is that possible? Why- nope I'm done. I'm lying back down until I ride out the high or wake up from this freaking nightmare."

Digit ignored her "You guys are supposed to be friends! Why are you fighting and being horrible to each other? Additionally, who's that and what's wrong with her?"

Jackie and Inez looked away from each other. Matt said softly "We haven't been friends for a long time Didge. We just...got older. It happens sometimes."

Inez added "Also, that's my best friend Rachel. She's having a series of nasty shocks."

"I see that."

Motherboard sighed "I guess I owe you kids an apology. I should have asked first but we're desperate. Hacker and Ledge have teamed up and its actually working to their advantage. They've taken over three cybersites and are working on taking over the rest of cyberspace. The only thing stopping them in the Infinity Line, a protective shield that surrounds myself and several other cybersites that was installed around three years ago and was actually the reason we never called you until now. They are trying to find the Infinity Stones-"

Matt whispered "What like the Avengers movie?"

The cyborg ignored him "Which power the Infinity Line. There are seven of them and the three cybersites they took over have three. The other four stones are safe for now but Ledge is trying to take those too. Hacker is guarding the other three sites."

Rachel, who had by this time recovered from the initial shock, raised her hand "Excuse me?"

Motherboard stopped and looked at her.

"Yes, um, I have SEVERAL questions. I'll limit myself to five. The first one is what are you talking about? Also, Who's Ledge? Who's Hacker? Why is everything named after either math or computer terms and what are cybersites?"

Digit explained for Motherboard "Your friend Inez is part of the Cybersquad which saves cyberspace from evil, Ledge and Hacker are the main aforementioned evils, I don't know, and Cybersites are kind of like small planets."

"Ah. I see. That clears everything up, makes perfect sense, and isn't utterly BATS!"

Digit turned to Inez "Is she always like that?"

Inez hesitated "Um...Yeah."

Jackie nodded "Yes."

Matt groaned "You have NO idea!"

"Great, because that might just be the attitude you guys need" Digit flew off "I'm going to get the ship ready. Next Stop: Radopolis. Slider and the other two are waiting. They'll help you on this one."


	3. Catfight

**Hey y'all! Thanks for the great reviews (: I really appreciate it and I hope you continue to enjoy the story!**

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Digit (having some idea of how this new dynamic worked) had Matt sit up by him, Jackie by herself in the next seat, and Rachel and Inez sitting together in the back of the pod.

That being said, it was still pretty awkward. And uncomfortably silent.

Rachel made a popping noise and then said "So Digit...Is everybody else in Cyberspace birds or what?"

Digit shrugged "Some of us are Cybirds but most Cybercitizens are Cyborgs" He added quickly "Not like you earthlies version of cyborgs though! They're sort of like... humanoid/Alien robots? Its hard to explain, I guess you'll just have to wait and see."

After a brief pause, Jackie turned and hissed "Feldman, you can't just ask if everyone's a bird!"

Rachel shrugged "Why? Its a legitimate question."

"Well for one thing, Motherboard OBVIOUSLY isn't a bird!"

"Correction: Her HEAD is obviously not a bird. What if she has a bird body, like a Siren? You'd never know."

"That doesn't change the fact that you shouldn't ask if everyone is a bird or not!"

Rachel threw up her hands "Why?! Did you not wonder the same thing?"

Jackie snapped "No! I was too busy saving Cyberspace! The Questions came later!"

Matt rolled his eyes and called back "Can you guys NOT fight for maybe two minutes?"

Inez stated flatly "This is the first time anyone has spoken in literally 35 minutes."

"Yeah and maybe THAT'S the problem! Maybe we should all just STOP TALKING for the remainder of this adventure!"

"Matt, all Rachel did was ask Digit a question and Jackie started in on her. Maybe JACKIE should stop talking!"

Jackie yelled "Maybe you should stop talking! Maybe YOU should never talk again!"

Digit turned and snapped at them as a building loomed ahead "Be quiet all of you! I'm trying to drive!"

Matt grabbed the pod wheel from Digit in order to avoid colliding with the building "Eyes on the sky Didge!"

"Sorry!"

There was a brief silence. Then Jackie turned and looked at Inez "Seriously though, it would be far better if you just stopped talking. Nobody listens."

The younger girl looked out the window "Whatever Jackie."

"Whatever? That's a great way to shut down a debate little miss 'Captain of the Debate Team'."

"You're right. It is. Whatever" Inez put her headphones in and addressed Rachel "Let me know when we get there."

"You can't ignore me! Inez!"

Jackie huffed and looked at Rachel "What about you? Miss Co-Captain? You have anything to say?"

Rachel gave Jackie a long slow look "I'm not the Co-Captain but John Davies is. If you had even an ounce of awareness of anything outside your petty desire to make a point, you'd have realized that" Rachel pulled a book out of her book bag "Now if you'll excuse me, The Yellow Wallpaper reading is due tomorrow and I plan on getting most of it done in spite of this...adventure. Fever dream. Whatever this is."

"I have no idea what you just said but I have a feeling its an insult!"

Rachel slammed her book back into her bag and leaned forward until she was close to the other girls face and snarled "Let me SIMPLIFY it for you: Me not co-captain of team. Davies is and you too stupid to know. Me read for learning place and opt out of dumb fight with much yelling. "

Jackie stared at her.

Rachel added "Also, you wouldn't know an insult if it came up and spit on your face" she sat back and pulled her book back out "I'm reading for the learning place now. No bother me."

Matt groaned and put his face in his hands "Oh for the love of Pete Rachel you HAD to add that last part..."

Jackie recovered "You BITCH! I am NOT stupid!"

"Oh so you understood that implication! Good for you! Next you'll be learning the days of the week!"

The African-American girl leaned forward and made a choking motion with her hands "You smug little-"

Digit cried in relief "Thank the stars we're here!" He landed and jumped out making a run for where Slider, Creech, and Shari were standing "Save me!"

Matt followed him "Wait for me Didge!"

Jackie glared at the two girls left "This conversation is NOT over Feldman! For either of you."

"It's over when I say it's over Smalls and guess what? It's over. Get out of the pod and go say hi to our new hallucination friends."

After Jackie left, Inez turned to Rachel "She could make your life miserable back home."

"That would require me to care."


End file.
